Chapter 279 The Troublemaker
Inside the bridge of a medium-sized transport ship.
The little girl named Posa was lying on the table in front of the French window with a bit of sadness, looking at the slowly shrinking planet outside the window, and she sighed softly:
"You guys were so quick. I just called for help and you stuffed me into the boat."
Lu's voice came: "Your safety is the master's most important concern at the moment."
"Yeah?"
Posa tilted her head, still looking at the planet.
The robot maid beside her had a wise light in her eyes named Lu, and asked, "Are you missing life on this planet? I need to collect statistics on your preferences so that I can arrange your future living environment."
"Let's survive first and then talk about life," the little woman whispered.
Lu was puzzled and asked, "Why do you say that?"
"She's here, the common enemy of your master and I," said the little Posa, with a maturity that didn't belong to her age. "She's even more powerful than the last time she showed up. I don't know if her target is me, but she's about to appear behind this planet."
Lu immediately asked: "Can you sense the exact location of the Zerg Queen?"
Little Posa pointed at the planet.
Lu was a little confused: "Is she hiding on that planet?"
"She is leading the Zerg to travel in secret, and is currently deploying a swarm of Zerg in the subspace," Little Posa explained, "If I hadn't asked your master for help in time, I would not be able to leave here now. This planet is now surrounded by a swarm of Zerg."
Lu asked: "But we can't detect any bugs..."
"Look, they're starting to come out. Can we go any faster?"
The little woman murmured softly, with red light flashing in her pupils, and her body seemed to be growing larger.
Lu pulled the transport ship's thrust to the maximum, letting the transport ship's engine run at overload, rushing to the nearest gravitational balance area as quickly as possible, and "watching" the planet through various detection instruments on the transport ship.
The space outside the planet began to distort strangely.
A layer of light and shadow similar to the coating before a spacecraft jump appeared outside the planet's atmosphere. A dark gray subspace membrane appeared out of thin air and quickly enveloped the entire planet.
The gravitational pull of the planet suddenly weakened by half;
It is impossible to detect the originally constant planetary magnetic field, the originally noisy radio wave field on the surface, and even now, the law is unable to detect the existence of organic life forms.
Lu did not find any relevant information corresponding to this situation in the database established by collecting public network information in the Milky Way.
This layer of subspace coating quickly expanded like a large balloon, and it seemed to be gently punctured by a needle.
The law immediately detected that there were "agitational" gravitational waves near the planet. Compared with the weak gravitational waves generated by the movement of planets around stars, the current energy level of this gravitational wave has reached the level of space oscillation when two planets collide.
Suddenly, more than ten dark clouds appeared around the planet.
Hundreds of millions of bugs appeared directly in the atmosphere! They didn't give the humans on the surface any chance to resist, and they poured directly into the city below!
Behind the planet, a human-shaped shadow slowly solidified. It was facing away from the starlight and its height exceeded one million meters.
It’s the sixth-level queen!
The giant queen opened her arms to embrace the planet below, and her "body" collapsed into countless sixth-order adults.
The frenzied swarm of insects was like a flood, sweeping away all organic life on the surface.
The robot steward in charge of driving the boat turned around and shouted, "Miss Lu! There is a swarm of insects chasing us!"
Lu made a prompt decision: "Force the jump! Don't worry about whether the ship will be damaged! I have arranged ships to wait at the target point!"
Little Posa looked at the swarm of insects that looked like a pair of pitch-black tentacles, rapidly swooping down on the transport ship, and her breathing gradually became heavier.
"Please calm down," Ritsu warned, "You are no match for this queen."
Posa nodded slightly.
"If this spaceship fails to reach the rendezvous point later, please hide in your own way. The mechanical thinking bodies here can change bodies at any time," Lu reminded, "I will find you as soon as possible."
Xiao Po Su thought for a moment and whispered, "Thank you."
In the thinking space, Lu blinked lightly.
The Valkyrie actually thanks humans?
This feels pretty good.
Lu actually only described the worst-case scenario and asked Posa to make some preparations in advance. Before the swarm of insects caught up, the transport ship steadily started the continuous jump and quickly headed towards Mingte City.
A few hours later, the news that a New Federation Class A administrative planet with a population of 1.9 billion was destroyed by the Zerg spread throughout human civilization through the galactic network.
The huge swarm of insects that attacked the planet was gathering and jumping, and finally disappeared mysteriously from the sight of human civilization.
All conventional detection equipment failed.
The swarm of insects flying in secret may be looking for its next target.
…
In the star system where the 'Mint City' star is located, the imperial battle cluster, which is actively preparing for war, has once again begun unified dispatch.
Yang Ming, Catherine, and Captain Gris, who had changed into ordinary military uniforms , walked quickly in the spacious, bright, and busy corridor of the dreadnought. After passing through layers of security checks, they successfully arrived outside a meeting room.
The soldier guarding the gate turned around and opened the door. Yang Ming, with his sharp ears, heard the conversation between the group of senior imperial officers inside.
"Has your majesty returned?"
"We have arrived in the Imperial Star Circle. The escort fleet will be deployed immediately after Your Majesty returns to the Imperial Star. The core engine group of the Skywrath Fortress has been activated."
"With the Empire's full-territory defense system, we don't actually have to worry too much about the country."
"What we don't understand now is the intention of this swarm of insects."
"Are there really insect swarms? Could it be a self-torture trick by the New Federation, using the destruction of a planet to clear itself of suspicion of planting insects?"
"How can we defend ourselves? They have all admitted it. The difficulty now is that we have been promoting the idea that the Zerg are the enemy of mankind, and that we should think from the perspective of mankind, and use this to condemn the New Federation. Now that the New Federation has been infested by the Zerg, should we save it or not?"
"No! Why save them? They deserve it."
"Even if we don't want to save him, we have to show that we can. Now is the best time for the empire in a hundred years..."
"cough!"
Lieutenant General Thomas, who was sitting in the main seat, coughed dryly, and the discussions everywhere quickly faded away.
"Captain Hanton, Captain Catherine, Captain Grace, please take a seat."
Lieutenant General Thomas greeted them, and Yang Ming and the other two saluted at the same time, then sat down at the last seat with a stern face.
The guards closed the door to the conference room.
Lieutenant General Thomas immediately played a video clip of long-range detection.
The propagation of light follows the principle of the speed of light. Even if the planet is destroyed, it will be cut off from external communication because it is trapped in the subspace. Using the detection station set up at a long distance, it is possible to actively observe the "delayed" image.
"There is indeed an insect plague in the New Federation, and the scale of the plague exceeds 10 billion."
Lieutenant General Thomas said in a deep voice:
“At present, our negotiations with the New Federation are still ongoing, and the New Federation has not yet signed the compensation treaty.
"According to the various possibilities deduced by the military supercomputer, the New Federation may ask our army for help next, kidnap our army in the name of morality to fight against the Zerg, and finally refuse to sign the compensation treaty.
"I am the chairperson of today's meeting, and the commanders of each combat group are listening in using projection equipment. We must come up with a countermeasure.
"Captain Hanton and his two companions are experts in killing insects. We asked them to come here to provide relevant professional advice."
An old general immediately said, "We only have one solution now, which is to make a big move and force them to sign as soon as possible!"
Someone immediately raised an objection: "We have already won a great victory, both in terms of the loss ratio of warships and the death ratio of both sides. If we ignite a full-scale war again, the outcome may not be certain."
This group of senior generals immediately began to debate.
They have clear logic, distinct opinions, and are very thoughtful in considering various matters.
This is obviously a group of senior think tanks of the imperial military.
However, after more than ten minutes of intense discussion, they could not reach a consensus.
Half of the people advocated that the New Federation must be forced to sign a compensation treaty now to pull the Empire out of the vortex.
A small number of people argued that they must put on a big show to ensure the empire's advantage in the public opinion field and cherish the reputation they had finally gained.
There are also a small number of generals who advocate waiting and seeing, since the Empire's invincible fleet is not afraid of the Zerg anyway.
Lieutenant General Thomas raised his hand and gestured, and the conference room quickly fell silent.
"Captain Hanton, what is your opinion? You know the Zerg best."
A group of major generals, colonels, and lieutenant colonels turned their heads and looked over.
Yang Ming didn't expect that he would be called suddenly, but he had prepared a speech in advance.
After all, Vice Admiral Thomas called him over to provide some 'professional advice' about bugs.
"We must leave the New Federation star region as soon as possible."
Yang Ming said in a deep voice:
“The one causing trouble in the New Federation right now is the queen who tried to sneak attack the Imperial Star before.
"She came here for revenge, revenge on the New Federation, revenge on the New Federation's insect burying plan. The insect burying plan should have been tacitly approved by this queen at the beginning, but the result of the insect burying plan caused the death of many queens. This queen tried to take revenge on the empire, but was scared off by the Sky Wrath Fortress. She will definitely choose the next target of revenge.
"The social system within the Space Zerg is very complex, and the only members of their tribe that they recognize are the Queens... In short, the true individuals of the Space Zerg are actually very rare, and a large number of them have died in recent years.
“This is why the queen, who is about to ascend to another dimension, is madly taking revenge on humans.
"How much do you think we should pay to help the New Federation repel this queen without the assistance of the star cannon?"
There was a buzzing sound in the conference room, and this group of senior military officers were whispering about something.
Lieutenant General Thomas frowned and said, "You mean, our army will retreat now?"
"This is the wisest choice," Yang Ming said. "I know you are still thinking about the compensation from the New Federation. After all, this is the most dazzling victory the Empire has achieved in the past few hundred years."
"Yes, Captain Hanton, the amount of this compensation will be huge, and it will also be a strong boost to our economy."
"We can't just give up these compensations easily."
"In the interstellar public opinion field..."
"What!"
Captain Gris said with a smile:
“We should not consider the factor of interstellar public opinion too much.
"You are all pillars of the imperial military, why can't you understand the essence of public opinion and human hearts?
“Even if we make their president kneel down and call us grandpa now, after our fleet withdraws, they will still do whatever they want to criticize the Empire. The New Federation’s industrial system is still there, and their economic foundation is still there. They will be able to recover in ten or twenty years.
"If we don't fight this war to the end and dismember the New Federation, the interstellar situation will not change. At most, the external public opinion environment of the empire will be relaxed for a few years, which is meaningless."
Yang Ming said calmly: "If that queen comes over, I can only choose to retreat alone. I can only barely deal with a fifth-level queen."
"Captain Yang Ming, you overestimate the bugs!"
"Yeah?"
Yang Ming played with the Imperial Star Guard Knight Medal he had just received and reminded General Thomas:
"Why didn't the lieutenant general report this to His Majesty and ask him to make the decision?
"Your Majesty has an extremely powerful supercomputer by his side. This computer will collect information from all aspects and then make the most rational choice that maximizes the interests of the empire."
"Well, this is indeed the most appropriate solution," Lieutenant General Thomas nodded slowly.
The general actually fully understood why these senior officers in front of him pretended to be ignorant even though they knew the truth.
Many people just don't want to take the blame.
This is also a common tactic used by the military to shift the blame - create a situation where there are differences of opinion, report them quickly and truthfully, and ask a higher power center to make a decision.
Captain Gris obviously failed to see the situation clearly. He was an excellent on-site commander, but not a qualified politician.
The clever Hanton saw through the military's embarrassing situation at a glance.
"The situation is urgent," Lieutenant General Thomas said solemnly, "I suggest that the commanders of each battle group jointly report this matter to your Majesty, and ask your Majesty to make a decision as soon as possible."
The group of generals quickly reached a consensus.
After the meeting, Lieutenant General Thomas, who had completed the report, invited Yang Ming, Catherine and Captain Grace to have lunch together.
Lunch was simple. They arrived at the nearby senior officers' mess, found a table, called over the food delivery robot floating near the ceiling, and began to wolf down the delicious meal.
Lieutenant General Thomas is not at all arrogant.
"Hanton, I almost forgot to congratulate you. You have become a celebrity in the aristocratic circle now," Vice Admiral Thomas said with a smile, "Thank you for the meeting just now. Otherwise, we would have wasted half a galaxy time."
Yang Ming smiled and said, "The general asked me to come here just to say those few words, didn't he?"
Thomas smiled with wrinkles on his tired face. "You are an expert on insects. Your opinion is really important to us... What measures do you predict the Imperial Guard System will take?"
"I don't know," Yang Ming said, "This kind of thinking body with powerful computing power can collect all kinds of information and see crises that we can't see. We just need to obey orders."
"One more thing," Lieutenant General Thomas asked, "You said before that you wanted a group of cells. What kind of cells are they?"
Yang Ming subconsciously glanced at Catherine beside him and said directly: "One sample of the ancient god's cells is enough. There are several samples stored in a research institute in the empire."
Lieutenant General Thomas nodded slowly: "Is that research institute under the management of our military?"
"Yes."
"That's no problem. I'll find someone to arrange it when I get back," Thomas said with a smile. "In addition to these, the military is expected to promote your rank, probably to the position of lieutenant colonel. If you have any opinions, you can raise them now. I can help you fight for it."
"Cough! Cough cough cough!"
Gris' eyes widened:
"Doesn't the Empire allow cyborgs to obtain military ranks?"
"Hanton's case is special," Thomas said with a smile. "Imperial law only prohibits cyborgs from obtaining military ranks, but does not prohibit cyborgs from being promoted to higher ranks. Before undergoing the cyborg experiment, Hanton was already a captain who was about to be promoted."
Catherine smiled and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Hanton."
"Don't be like that," Yang Ming said with a strange look on his face. "In fact, the Council of Elders also tried to use the same reason to help Hui Saka improve his status and rank."
"I heard about it," Lieutenant General Thomas smiled with narrowed eyes, "Now it depends on how much they can give. However, the identity of the nobility is quite sensitive, so this may be..."
Buzz, buzz!
Lieutenant General Thomas paused, took out his communicator from his arms, and his expression changed subtly.
"The Imperial Guard System suggested that we withdraw our troops immediately, and His Majesty agreed."
Yang Ming frowned and said, " You really don't want this compensation?"
"Even if they ask for it, the New Federation will refuse to pay it later. We just want to see them give in." Lieutenant General Thomas took two mouthfuls of food, hurriedly stood up and put on his military cap. "I'll go arrange the work. We're going to blow up that stuffy and get as much information and high-value structures as possible!"
Grace immediately said, "Is there anything our special forces can do?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Ming, Catherine and his communicators vibrated at the same time.
[Empire's entire defense system: The swarm of insects is detected to be secretly sailing towards this place. It is expected that there will be a tragic war with huge human casualties. Please return to your ship immediately and cooperate with the military to implement the follow-up plan. ]
What’s next?
Two question marks popped up on Yang Ming's head.
Wouldn't it be enough for them to just withdraw? What else did the Imperial Guard System need them to do?
